Implementing Indigenous Frameworks towards the Archaeological Record: Issues, Instances, and Directions

Summary

While archaeology concerns a Western-derived discipline, the scope of its perspective is broadening. Here, we highlight Indigenous frameworks for the analysis and interpretation of archaeological data wherever there is direct historical and cultural continuity of people and place. To this end, we attempt to map out the contours for analyses using models and theory derived from oral traditions, language, and other schema from indigenous sources to explain patterning of artifacts and features of the archaeological record. We also consider some of the issues raised in applying indigenous frameworks within the discourses of contemporary archaeology. We include two cases from our work in Salishan territory applying frameworks derived from Coast Salish (Lushootseed) and Interior Salish (Nlaka’pamux) concepts. The first involves an analysis of settlement patterns in the Upper Skagit region of Washington state using Lushootseed spatial concepts of what constitutes a village. The second example entails an interpretation of rock art sites in the Mid-Fraser Canyon of British Columbia through an indigenous theory rooted in Nlaka'pamux perspectives. We maintain that understandings of these sites are significantly enhanced by the use of indigenous frameworks, allowing for explanations that extend beyond what can be achieved through the use of Western frameworks alone.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Applying Indigenous Frameworks for Archaeological Analysis and Interpretation

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13287